~snip~ In the month after the 9/11 attack, a Bush order stripped terrorist suspects of access to any court and permitted military detention indefinitely without charge. No one knew until recently that this was the work of Cheney with the help of his attorney, David Addington. In this case, as in so many cases to this day, Cheney left no fingerprints; he operated where he always prefers -- below the radar of public awareness. ~snip~

Cheney, with the help of legal advisors -- Addington, Alberto Gonzales and others -- has helped craft "signing statements" to over 750 laws. After Bush signed bills into law, he quietly filed the signing statements in the Federal Register asserting in effect that he, not the courts, would interpret the laws and ignore those he saw fit to ignore. This goes beyond anything any one has imagined as presidential power. This begins to look like the power of a powerful, inherited monarchy -- exactly what a republic is not.

This sheds light on our original question: Is Cheney a vice president or a super-president (uber-president)? The answer is neither -- he is a regent.

The post of regent was important in the days of absolute monarchies. The regent is "A person appointed to administer a State because the Monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated" (Oxford English Dictionary). Not only has Cheney acted in all ways as a regent, but he has expanded presidential powers to be appropriate to his regency. Our Founding Fathers would be appalled.

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